Comment by ptha | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ptha | Hacker News Reader

A little perspective from the other side, why screws aren't aligned in watchmaking:

Is it possible to machine a screw, tap the threads, and control the depth of the countersink so as to produce perfectly aligned slots? It is, and it's been done, but it is also apparently a royal PITA, to indulge in some colorful vernacular. In poking around trying to find out if it's ever been done, and how you do it, I ran across the discussion forum at the Practical Machinist, where several different techniques are mentioned. You do find aligned screws in manufactured objects occasionally – Parker-brand shotguns are one example – but the various methods are extremely labor-intensive

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/why-screw-slots-arent-alig...

That's exactly the kind of thing I would expect on luxury watches.

Let's get real, fancy mechanical watches are worse at timekeeping than cheap quartz watches. Their only purpose besides just being expensive is to show the incredible craftsmanship of the watchmaker.

That aligning screws is so difficult should add to the value, I'd expect fancy watch people to say "this $10k watch doesn't have aligned screws, but that $100k one does", as an argument to justify the price difference. And I would totally get it.

Krishnadev Calamur, writing for The Atlantic as part of their series on the Apollo 11 anniversary a few years ago:

> In other words, the Speedmaster and [mechanical] watches like it provide a sense of permanence in an age with little of it. The Speedmaster available today is virtually the same as the one Aldrin wore on the moon, or indeed the one Omega introduced way back in 1957, as a tool for race-car drivers.

> It is unchanged because there’s nothing to change: The mechanical watch is, along with the bicycle, an arguably perfect invention. If wound every day and serviced regularly, it can run for perpetuity. There aren’t many things you can say that about in our era of fast fashion and biennial phone upgrades.

* https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/omega-sp...

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